Hello Kitty is Not a Cat

Anyone who knows me knows I collect Hello Kitty. Hey, I even have a Hello Kitty phone. That said, I'm fairly devastated to learn that Hello Kitty is not really a cat! Although now it makes sense why I'm not allergic to Hello Non-Kitty.

In this week's LA Times, Christine R. Yano, an anthropologist and "Hello Kitty scholar," stated that while she was preparing her written texts for an exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum, she called Hello Kitty a cat and "was corrected — very firmly. That's one correction Sanrio made for my script for the show."

She added, "Hello Kitty is not a cat. She's a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She's never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature. She does have a pet cat of her own, however, and it's called Charmmy Kitty."